Consumers and businesses face a growing tide of malicious software that threatens the stability and performance of their computers and the security of their data. Computer programmers with malicious motivations have created and continue to create viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and other programs in an attempt to compromise computer systems. These malicious programs are often referred to as malware. In an attempt to evade detection, malicious programmers may even inject malware into or among legitimate programs.
In recent years, the Internet has become a major vector for malware propagation. Accordingly, traditional security systems may scan recently downloaded files for malware. Unfortunately, by the time a malicious file has been downloaded, the malicious file may have already caused wasted time and computing resources. For example, a user downloading a large file may have to wait until the file is downloaded (and the traditional security system has had time to scan the file) before learning that the file is malicious. Furthermore, downloading a large malicious file may waste computing resources (e.g., network resources, I/O resources, etc.). Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for identifying security risks in downloads.